This is chapter three of the story, where the Tripreporter and his companion spend some quality time in Tasmania, see the scheduled plane on a low pass, gear down, along the runway and experienced the classic prop sound above the Blue Mountains, together with a visit to this amazing city called Sydney.

Tasmania, the Island of Inspiration, we will see what´s on offer here.

Back to the fairly new hotel. A first view for the room
And some details
The bathroom
One more of these shorty nights and breakfast is on offer
Also nice views here in the morning
The hotel from the outside
These guy´s have a hard and noisy time...
...with this one
There is a rental car to catch at the airport now.
Managed by Mietwagenmarkt.de,
one day 40.00 Euro´s all in, sure ok from my point of view.
Well, let´s go and tour Tasmania, at least a small part of it!.
Wild west, ahem south, isn´t it?
Nice landscape while riding through a valley
Redspot shows the red car, ok for the relaxed Tasmanian driver and believe me, you don´t really need
traffic regulations here. Road trains mostly loaded with tons of wood have naturally the right of way!
How I like these tree´s
And the whole scenery
And a number of Wallabies are also around
Like this one
This is Freycinet Peninsula
With the Freycinet National Park
For some meters to hike, after 24.00 Austral Dollars left my wallet at the entrance desk. Ok, it´s worth it to support Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife service
Up the hill
With the coastline in sight
Big sandstones are also here
With Coles Bay in the distance
And interesting flowers or whatever it is
For a first view to Wineglass Bay
And sure this looks like nice,
at least from my point of view
No one down there
There is still a way to walk for the beach
But just to remember, downwards is easy, up again is much more exhausting
The landbridge in between is only a small one
Looks like nice, isn´t it?
Also with these huge sandstones
Back on track for Coles Bay
Cattle on the way
And the Sandy Beach
Retour at downtown Hobart in the late afternoon to change for the next accomodation
The Fountainside Hotel
Room details
The bathroom
And a view from the window
What about this one?
Nice historic warehouses at the harbour
Well renovated
A steam crane
Hobart is sure a nice place to spend some time
with mostly relaxed people.
No hectic seems the theme here
Sure I know, we are far down the south, but the Institute
Polaire here?
L´Astrolabe explores the Antarctic
Sure something nice here in Hobart
Immediate time now for more flying, isn´t it?.

Friday, 29.03.2013

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Service QF 1020 operated by Qantas
Scheduled: 11.55 // 13.45

For the airport early in the morning, returned the car without hassles till now and ready for the usual view to the screen. And if you noticed any differences between the schedule and the screen, stay tuned!
The fare is again 125.00 Euro´s per pax fixed by Qantas directly.
The Qantas Club in Hobart, I´am surprised
But why not?
With really nice views to the apron.
For example Jetstar
Not that large, but spacious enough for us
And superb sunny weather this morning
Tiger on arrival
Tiger and Jetstar side by side
Jetstar on the go
I´am not ready with the camera, but a QF 738 done a low pass along the runway with the gear down
This one
And exactly this one looks like our scheduled plane for MEL. But wait, MEL?. Are you sure?. You show us SYD as destination with the logo´s
Tiger on the go
Pax disembarking
And not much more is going on till the gate agent arrived and told us the story:
There is a problem with the undercarriage and the
pilot declared the plane not ready to fly
There is no experienced engineer with situations like this here in Hobart available and so they send someone with the next flight ex MEL.
Pax with destination Melbourne should stay in the gate area, pax with connecting flights like us should leave the secured area and check the counters for other flight options.
Done and back as the first ones at the premium desk.
Originally booked is HBA-MEL on the previous seen 738 and MEL-SYD on one more 763
The nice lady shows us the on and only viable option to go now. There is a nonstop service for SYD around noon and she will secure us two of the very few open seats if we like to do it this way. Well, if we like it or not, secured.
The bags are redelivered and rechecked for SYD after some more minutes by the same nice lady like our first try this morning to leave HBA
Back in the gate area and back in the lounge
to see a Virgin coming in
Like this one
Our original 738 is still here
And another one is coming in
On the runway
Taxi
And parked
With just a few clouds above
Ground handling in action
Pax disembarking, hopefully not the same story again
Sisters side by side
Boarding from gate 4, 12.00 am, close to ontime, 1.00 hour, 25 minutes by "Qantas" for the harbour city
Sure a pretty nice experience with these sunny weather conditions on the tarmac here in Hobart.
22 degrees, some clouds only and somewhat windy like it is often on the tarmac
Welcome to "The Spirit Of Australia" once again
Under the wing, you know!
This is VH-VZS, the 738 like on schedule for this route
A good looking example
"Tamworth" is new to the log and leg no. 67 on type
And this one is still here
In service since 15.09.2011 with Qantas only, 56 examples are in the actual fleet.
This is an interesting story with the plane:http://avherald.com/h?article=449270f8&opt=0
We are ready to go now
Cockpit crew is from Australia, the pilot with a relaxed welcome Aussie style during taxi, he talked about some ATC restrictions enroute, but nothing really serious.
This is the routing as shown on the inseat screens
The legroom is somewhat low here
in the last row, 29 A/C and the middle seat remained open
Or rather bye now to Hobart
Cabin crew is all senior and nice. One male, three female FA´s
and one really experienced female Chef de Cabin.
For the 2251 meters runway "Three-Zero", like arrivals two days before
The clean new style cabin with the mixed red grey fabric seats
The load is 90% with mostly VFR travellers on the way.
Just a view for the safetycard
And a few clouds down there
What about some colours on the winglet?
Heading in northeastern direction
And leaving this nice island
How I like these colours down there
Something to enjoy, a hot snack, apples and free drinks twice, impressive
Till we reached mainland Australia
Dry landscape above Victoria and further on for Canberra at maximum 38000 feet
And just a few sheepy clouds short to Sydney
Approaching
More clouds around
What a nice scenic approach
A thousand of boats down there
This is definitely a water oriented city
Downtown ahead
The right side this time for me
The harbour bridge
And the Opera house
Finals for the 3962 meters "One-Six-Right"
1.50 pm, short after schedule, 23 degrees and partly cloudy.
Finger disembarking

On the utterly overpriced Airport Link for Central and just some meters to walk, ok meters enough with bags, for the next accomodation, the Meriton Serviced Apartments Campbell Street
The logo at the entrance
A first view for the appartment
The bathroom
Spacious and well designed
And a nice view
There is also a balcony on offer
This is it
Sydney Central
The majestic harbour bridge
Cruisers also here
The skyline
And the Opera house
Ferry traffic
In the afternoon
Looks like nice this way
Just a few people around
Welcome to the Sydney Opera House, ok!
The harbourbridge in twilight
And also downtown
A nightly view from the balcony
Or maybe this way
One more of this shorty nights ahead now.
Done and we leave the bags at the hotel for a detour early the next morning.

These flight is fixed by the REX website and the fare per pax is 120.00 Austral Dollar.
Manual Check-In is done by a nice middle aged woman.
There are just a few interesting places here on the board
And there are also just a few interesting planes on the apron
The bus leads the way at gate 2
Comparison strictly separated
Give me some quality fuel!
09.10 am and this is ontime, just 25 minutes to go by "Rex".
There is no lounge on offer here.
Brindabella and the Metro doesn´t fit in our schedule
But this one fit´s better
Or maybe also this one
Fly me to ZRH today!
Welcome to REX
This is leg no. 8 on type
New to the log
In service with American Eagle and REX since 18.05.1996
The total number of planes on type in the fleet is 45, impressive.
It´s true, this one is called ZRH
The Australian FO is on the tarmac greeting his pax personally, sure a nice touch.
Prop view
And from the inside
The load is 90%, VFR travellers also today.
The cabin as seen from 3 B/C, the two seater
Oldfashioned to say the least
Just departed from the 3962 meters "Three-Four-Left" with sunny 23 degrees
The safety card
Low legroom
And the magazine
Service well done by REX, snack, water and also sweets managed by a nice middle aged asian woman
Leaving the Sydney area
Oldfashioned well used blue leather seats
Mountains ahead
Well, Blue Mountains ahead!
Me and the engine
Low level cruising
Engine details
Is this an airfield down there?
The cabin ceiling
Leaving the Blue Mountains
Green countryside around
The Australian captain is on the mike with some short infos inflight.
No route or flightlevel data.
The last mountains
Why built the tracks straight ahead when there are some curves possible?
Agricultural land
Close to our destination
Approaching
With gorgeous weather conditions
Engine and the mountains
Finals
And touchdown at the 1705 meters runway "One-Seven//Three-Five".
It´s 09.50 am, ten minutes ahead to schedule, sunny and 12 degrees
Taxi
Well, this looks like an airfield in the real countryside
A couple of props on the apron
And disembarking
The FO is on the tarmac again with a nice personal Bye-Bye to the pax, now that´s what I call nice service here.
Ground handling
Bye now for REX, sure a pleasant experience
And welcome to Bathurst, famous for the Mt. Panorama Racing Circuit, the australian center for Touring Car Racing.
And where the one and only taxi waiting is ours.
Pure luck or what else?.
No, pleasantly managed by REX.
The FA asked inflight if someone is in need for a taxi at Bathurst.
Yes, we are.
And the pilot called the airport to prepare one for us.
Perfectly nice service here.
There is a bus transfer from Bathurst station to Lithgow
and the next bus is running at 10.10 am.
Well, the taxista is a very experienced guy and as soon as he noticed that we are no Australians and also no Americans, but from Germany he told us his story.
Born in Bremerhaven, in the north of Germany and emigrated to Australia some 60 years ago, never been back in Germany since.
And with all the talking, exactly when we approached the station we saw the bus leaving. Well, the next one is two hours away and the weather is nice, no complaints here
This one runs in the other direction
Bathurst historic station
Downtown
The Blue Mountains again
By Countrylink this time
And further by train from Lithgow
On this classic silver alu carriages
The fare all the way from Bathurst to Sydney is, believe me, 8.20 Austral Dollars for me and just 1.00 Austral Dollar for my companion. Now that´s what I call a good price/earning ratio!.
Let´s go now
That´s what I call classic
For the Blue Mountains
And riding all the way down for Sydney
With the blue sky above
Marvellous views
The valleys
Green landscape all along
That´s what I call scenery
Back at Sydney Central catching the bags at the Meriton and ready to go above the Harbour Bridge for the next place to stay for the night.
But wait, this is another part of the story.

Exactly the final part where the Tripreporter and his companion experienced a really warm welcomed equipment change from the 763 to the 738 to the..., stay tuned and catched all the attention around an inaugural service with personal guidance at Emirates top notch lounge place in Dubai and wait, also BA provides something special on the final leg for STR.

Quoting The777Man (Reply 2):
Very nice report with very nice pictures ! You really saw a lot of different places in Australia!

Very nice scenery both in Tasmania and NSW! The train rides seem very nice as well.

Very much looking forward to the next report!

Thank you and more to come, you know.

@a.:

Quoting aflyingkiwi (Reply 3):
Great report. Seems like you had a couple of solid flights with REX & QF. Firstly a shame that you weren't able to fly the 763 this time though the service on board QF looked impressive.

REX looked fine as well. I'm yet to fly with them though I hope to soon.

Nice to be able to read part 3 now too. Once again a great report with many nice pictures!
Tasmania sure is a beautiful island, Hobart looks so peaceful
Qantas once again impresses with their service, shame that you were rebooked and not able to fly through MEL and catch another 763, but oh well those things unfortunately happen..
Beautiful pictures of Sydney, cant wait to visit there
REX also looks impressive with some nice crew!

I feel when flying with regional airlines like rex, that you are treated like a fellow human being and not self loading cargo.

Thank you and exactly my impression around REX.

@B.:

Quoting adamspotter (Reply 7):
Nice to be able to read part 3 now too. Once again a great report with many nice pictures!
Tasmania sure is a beautiful island, Hobart looks so peaceful

Thank you.

Quoting adamspotter (Reply 7):
Qantas once again impresses with their service, shame that you were rebooked and not able to fly through MEL and catch another 763, but oh well those things unfortunately happen..

From three 763´s to one in the end around this trip.

Quoting adamspotter (Reply 7):eautiful pictures of Sydney, cant wait to visit there
REX also looks impressive with some nice crew!

It's called 'Katoomba Airport' but goes by the more realistic name of Medlow Bath Airfield, MB being the district north and west of Katoomba. Just a couple of dirt strips hacked out of the scrub on one of the few flat bits of land in that area.

Good to read about your ReXperience - I love flying with them: the crews are always personable and ready for a chat, and a multi-sector flight around NSW is interesting and fun. Reminds you of what flying used to be like.

What a super, exotic report! This is certainly Australia from a different angle. Of course I particularly enjoyed the pictures of Sydney, happy memories of last year’s trip.

After seeing your photos of Tasmania, it’s on the to-do list! Such a perfect place for hiking with those views, Wineglass Bay looks beautiful. The Blue Mountain excursion from Sydney also impressed me: the scenic flight to Bathurst and then the train journey back. I can’t believe how much you packed into your short trip.

You've just made me SO JEALOUS!!! I love Tassie, but haven't been in 4 years. I was hoping to go this year, but it looks like it'll be next year now, and your pictures made me want to go even more!

Quoting FLIEGER67 (Thread starter):The FA asked inflight if someone is in need for a taxi at Bathurst.
Yes, we are.
And the pilot called the airport to prepare one for us.

That's a fantastic service! I really should try out Rex, but first I need to catch one of those Brindabella Metroliners you got photo of. They're leaving the fleet soon, and I'm desperate to get a ride before they go

Quoting B707MT (Reply 11):Amazing range of Banksias we have out here DownUnder - named for Sir Joseph B, of course, of Cook's first voyage fame.

Quoting B707MT (Reply 11):Amazing range of Banksias we have out here DownUnder - named for Sir Joseph B, of course, of Cook's first voyage fame.

Thank you, good to know.

Quoting B707MT (Reply 11):
It's called 'Katoomba Airport' but goes by the more realistic name of Medlow Bath Airfield, MB being the district north and west of Katoomba. Just a couple of dirt strips hacked out of the scrub on one of the few flat bits of land in that area.

Once more, good to know, perfect local advice.

Quoting B707MT (Reply 11):Good to read about your ReXperience - I love flying with them: the crews are always personable and ready for a chat, and a multi-sector flight around NSW is interesting and fun. Reminds you of what flying used to be like.

Exactly my opinion here.

@PH:

Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 12):
another interesting report, this time with good pictures from Sydney! Good decision to try REX, I liked that airline a lot.

Quoting infodesk (Reply 13):
What a super, exotic report! This is certainly Australia from a different angle. Of course I particularly enjoyed the pictures of Sydney, happy memories of last year’s trip.

Thank you.

Quoting infodesk (Reply 13):After seeing your photos of Tasmania, it’s on the to-do list! Such a perfect place for hiking with those views, Wineglass Bay looks beautiful. The Blue Mountain excursion from Sydney also impressed me: the scenic flight to Bathurst and then the train journey back. I can’t believe how much you packed into your short trip.

These are definitely places to go for you and Australia is far, but not to far away, you know!.

Quoting infodesk (Reply 13):
Never seen the exact reason displayed on the FIDS like that, a nice touch. QF looked after you well though, shame you didn’t get to go via MEL as planned, but lucky you secured the last seats to SYD.

Quoting infodesk (Reply 13):
I wouldn’t fancy such a long journey in that aircraft

Anyway a nice coincidence, isn´t it?.

@R.:

Quoting RyanairGuru (Reply 14):Thank you so much for taking us on this tour around Australia! It looks like you had a great time down here

Thank you.

Quoting RyanairGuru (Reply 14):
You've just made me SO JEALOUS!!! I love Tassie, but haven't been in 4 years. I was hoping to go this year, but it looks like it'll be next year now, and your pictures made me want to go even more!

Tasmania is definitely one of my top places to go anytime.

Quoting RyanairGuru (Reply 14):That's a fantastic service! I really should try out Rex, but first I need to catch one of those Brindabella Metroliners you got photo of. They're leaving the fleet soon, and I'm desperate to get a ride before they go

Tasmania has been on my list for some time but sadly I've never got there (yet). The landscape looks amazing. Sounds like you both had a good time. Historically Tasmania was never a place that people visited much - it wasn't until the government and tourism bodies started to much more aggressively market the place that it became much better known and visited. I would love to spend some time in Hobart and drive around the island - the west coast is rugged and lush, with lots of rainfall and amazing forests and trees.

Nice to see Rex featuring again too - that flight to Bathurst must be one of the shortest operated by the airline - according to their inflight route map at least. Looks like you had a good flight with them and that inflight magazine looks very familiar! Glad to see you managed to combine a plane and train again for this part.

Sydney of course, is looking great. Nice to see some pics from your time there too.

Another great trip report, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the Tasman country side and the train pics, always been a soft part in my hart!
Interesting to see the saab 'ZRH' in the log, nice to see QF installing AVOD on it's 737s as well.

Quoting palmjet (Reply 16):
Tasmania has been on my list for some time but sadly I've never got there (yet). The landscape looks amazing. Sounds like you both had a good time. Historically Tasmania was never a place that people visited much - it wasn't until the government and tourism bodies started to much more aggressively market the place that it became much better known and visited. I would love to spend some time in Hobart and drive around the island - the west coast is rugged and lush, with lots of rainfall and amazing forests and trees.

Tasmania is definitely a place to visit, for me again, too.

Quoting palmjet (Reply 16):
Nice to see Rex featuring again too - that flight to Bathurst must be one of the shortest operated by the airline - according to their inflight route map at least. Looks like you had a good flight with them and that inflight magazine looks very familiar! Glad to see you managed to combine a plane and train again for this part.

Sydney of course, is looking great. Nice to see some pics from your time there too.

Sure it is with the route, fit´s perfectly for us this time.

@M.:

Quoting MSS658 (Reply 17):
Another great trip report, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the Tasman country side and the train pics, always been a soft part in my hart!
Interesting to see the saab 'ZRH' in the log, nice to see QF installing AVOD on it's 737s as well.

Nice and interesting report! QF doing the right thing at Hobart and handling the technical issue very well. Sydney is a truly wonderful and bustling city and the approach into its airport is really one of a kind, good to see you were able to experience just that.
Also Rex and the tiny Saab were kinda special. I remember me paying a visit to the Blue Mountains, albeit not by plane but by car, a really nice place to spend some hours in.

Quoting FLIEGER67 (Thread starter):The FA asked inflight if someone is in need for a taxi at Bathurst.
Yes, we are.
And the pilot called the airport to prepare one for us.
Perfectly nice service here.

That's really excellent. I hope though the taxi service wasn't overpriced

Quoting sultanils (Reply 20):
Nice and interesting report! QF doing the right thing at Hobart and handling the technical issue very well. Sydney is a truly wonderful and bustling city and the approach into its airport is really one of a kind, good to see you were able to experience just that.
Also Rex and the tiny Saab were kinda special. I remember me paying a visit to the Blue Mountains, albeit not by plane but by car, a really nice place to spend some hours in.

Lucky me with the approach into SYD and also nice by the companion to offer me the window this time.